Iran's foreign minister is rejecting claims from Saudi Arabia that his country supplied the Shiite rebels in Yemen with missiles.
	The official IRNA news agency quotes Mohammad Javad Zarif today as saying these are "baseless accusations."
	Zarif's response came after US Secretary of State John Kerry said during a visit to Saudi Arabia yesterday that Washington was "deeply troubled" after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef showed him photos allegedly of Iranian- supplied missiles along the Saudi-Yemen border. Those photos have not been made public.
	Zarif, speaking from Chile, said Kerry's remarks show the US government is "an accomplice in Saudi war crimes against the innocent people of Yemen."
	In Yemen, its internationally recognised government and a Saudi-led coalition are battling the rebels known as Houthis and their allies.

Iran denies Saudi allegations it gave Yemen rebels missiles

PTI Automatic

Philippine troops killed at least 11 Abu Sayyaf militants, including an influential commander, in an assault on the extremists today following their beheading of a captive whose family was too poor to pay ransom, the military said.
	Regional military commander Maj Filemon Tan said 17 soldiers were wounded when hundreds of army troops surrounded a vast jungle area in Sulu province's mountainous Patikul town and clashed with scattered groups of about 100 militants.
	Among the 11 dead militants was Amah Maas, a longtime commander of the group who had severed arms and had been implicated in ransom kidnappings, including of European tourists.
	President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the troops to destroy the militants in their jungle bases after the extremists on Wednesday beheaded a Filipino teenager, Patrick James Aldovar, who was abducted near a police camp in Sulu's main Jolo town last month.
	"The order of the president is to search and destroy the Abu Sayyaf so that's what we are doing," ..

Philippines kills 11 Abu Sayyaf militants after beheading

She became the face of Italy's earthquake: Sister Marjana Lleshi, blood staining her veil as she texted her family and friends in her native Albania that she was alive.
	In an interview yesterday at the mother house of her religious order, the 35-year-old nun recounted how she thought she would die when her convent walls collapsed. She texted her friends asking that they pray for her soul, only to be rescued by a man she has called her "angel."
	Now safe, Lleshi says she wants nothing more than to go to next week's Rome canonization of Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian nun "who gave hope to those who didn't have any."
	Lleshi was sleeping in the Don Minozzi convent beside the Church of the Most Holy Crucifix in Amatrice when the quake struck at 3:36 am Wednesday. She had been there, with six other sisters, caring for five elderly women. Her order, the Sisters of the Handmaidens of the Lord, runs nurseries and homes for the aged.
	She woke up covered in dust and bleeding. Realizing ...

Nun in iconic Italy quake photo texted friends 'adieu'

Lotte Group's vice chairman has been found dead as authorities widen a probe into corruption at South Korea's fifth-largest business group, officials at the company and police said today.
	Lee In-won, 69, the company's highest-ranking executive outside the founding family and the top aide to its chairman, was found dead hours before a scheduled appearance at a prosecutors' office today morning.
	"It is difficult to believe," Lotte Group said in a text message to reporters. Lee has been a Lotte man for more than 40 years since he joined the company's hotel business in 1973.
	The death sends Lotte into a fresh crisis. South Korean prosecutors are investigating allegations of embezzlement, slush funds and tax evasions at Lotte Group. The investigation forced the group in June to withdraw its initial public offering plan for Hotel Lotte Co that could have raised as much as 5.7 trillion won (USD 5.1 billion).
	Local media reported that Lee took his own life. Yonhap quoted a note he left as 

Lotte Group vice chairman found dead before corruption probe

Six Indonesian provinces have declared states of emergency as forest fires blanketed a swath of Southeast Asia in a smoky haze.
	Singapore's air quality deteriorated to unhealthy levels today as winds blew smoke from fires on Sumatra across the city-state and into southern Malaysia.
	The number of hotspots detected in Sumatra and Borneo by weather satellites has increased in the past month though they are below levels last year when massive fires in Indonesia caused a regional crisis.
	Singapore's three-hour air pollution index had risen to 198 by early afternoon. Its environment agency doesn't give a health warning with the limited duration index, but on a 24-hour basis it says levels above 100 are unhealthy and above 200 very unhealthy.
	"The smell of smoke woke me up. I thought something was burning outside," said Singaporean copywriter Lim Jia Ying, who put on a mask for her commute to work. "I'm having a cough and it's getting worse. Luckily, I found a face mask at home," she ...

Indonesia steps up fire response as haze blankets Singapore

Striking miners in Bolivia kidnapped and beat to death the country's deputy interior minister after he traveled to the area to mediate in the bitter conflict over mining laws, officials said.
	Government Minister Carlos Romero called it a "cowardly and brutal killing" and asked that the body of deputy minister Rodolfo Illanes be turned over to authorities.
	Illanes, whose formal title is vice minister of the interior regime, was "savagely beaten" to death by the striking miners, Defense Minister Reymi Ferreira told Red Uno television, his voice breaking.
	Earlier, Romero had said that Illanes had been kidnapped and possibly tortured, but wasn't able to confirm reports that he had been killed by the striking informal miners, who are demanding the right to associate with private companies, among other issues.
	The fatal beating follows the killings of two protesters in clashes with police, deaths that likely escalated tensions in the strike.
	Illanes had gone to Panduro, 130 kilometers .

Official: Striking miners kill deputy minister in Bolivia

Turkey's state-run news agency says Kurdish rebels have exploded a car bomb at a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey. Several people were wounded.
	Anadolu Agency says the attack today targeted a checkpoint some 50 meters away from a police station in the town of Cizre, in Sirnak province. It said the blast caused severe damage to the police station.
	Militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have carried out a string of car bomb attacks on police and military in recent months.
	Violence between the PKK and the security forces resumed last year, after the collapse of a fragile peace process.

Several reported wounded in Turkey car bomb attack

One person was killed and at least four were injured in Belgium in an accidental explosion at a sports center near the French border.
	Chimay police Chief Pierre Maton said early today that the blast was most likely "a gas explosion," but an investigation into the cause was ongoing.
	The blast in the town of Chimay, 120 kilometers south of the capital Brussels, happened just after midnight local time.
	Several dozen police and firefighters were on the scene and the area had been cordoned off, but the damage was not as serious as initially feared.
	Windows were blown out of the two-story building, and one corner of the structure was badly damaged but there was no major collapse.
	Firefighters were on the scene early today morning clearing the rubble and securing the building. Police said they believed they have retrieved all the people from the rubble.
	Chimay has a population of about 10,000 and is known for one of Belgium's most famous breweries.

1 dead, at least 4 injured in Belgium in accidental blast

Brazilian police charged American swimmer Ryan Lochte with filing a false robbery report over an incident during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
     A police statement yesterday said Lochte would be informed in the United States so he could decide whether to introduce a defense in Brazil.
     The indictment will also be sent to the International Olympic Committee's ethics commission, the statement said. The swimmer's publicists and his lawyer, Jeff Ostrow, did not immediately respond to calls and emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
     Lochte initially said that he and fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen were robbed at gunpoint in a taxi by men with a police badge as they returned to the Olympic Village from a party Aug. 15. However, security video suggested the four actually faced security guards after vandalising a gas station restroom.
     Lochte left Brazil shortly after the incident. Three days later, local authorities took Conger and ...

Rio police charge Lochte with false report of robbery

A Belgian newspaper is reporting that an explosion has rocked a sports center in the Belgian town of Chimay, with reports of at least one person dead and two injured.
	Het Laatse Niews quoted a rescue services spokesman as saying today that the blast happened just after midnight and that several people were in the building at the time.
	The spokesman, who was not named, said that a large section of the building had collapsed and that people were feared trapped in the rubble.
	The cause of the explosion is unknown.
	Police in Chimay, which lies some 120 kilometers south of the capital Brussels, could not be immediately reached for confirmation.

Belgian media report blast at Chimay sports center

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa says a Swedish prosecutor will interview Wikileaks founder Julian Assange inside the South American country's embassy in London.
	Assange has been holed up at the mission for four years since Swedish officials sought to question him over sexual assault allegations. He denies the charges.
	Correa said on Wednesday that the questioning will occur in the next few weeks with an Ecuadorean prosecutor present, but did not say exactly when.
	The document archive website Wikileaks has published anonymous submissions of huge dumps of documents over the past decade.

Ecuador president: Swedish prosecutor to interview Assange

The UN health agency says reports from national authorities indicate no confirmed laboratory cases of the Zika virus in anyone associated with the Rio Olympics.
	The World Health Organisation announced the findings yesterday in its weekly situation report on Zika. A recent epidemic of the mosquito-borne virus, which first erupted in Brazil, has been linked to brain-related birth defects in newborns and other nervous system troubles in some adults.
	Before the Games, some medical experts expressed concerns the Games might cause the virus to spread faster than normal by drawing large numbers of foreign athletes and visitors who might carry it back home. The virus can also be spread through sex.
	Some Brazilian fans jeered US athletes who made light of the risk or stayed home over fears about Zika.

UN agency: No confirmed Zika cases linked to Rio Olympics

Authorities say two Catholic nuns have been found slain in a Mississippi home where they lived.
	Durant Assistant Police Chief James Lee said today that an officer found them when they didn't report to work as normal.
	Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain says it appears the nuns were homicide victims. He didn't release a motive and it wasn't clear if their religious work had anything to do with the slayings.
	The assistant police chief says it's too early to say how the nuns died, but it appears they were not shot. Lee says both nuns are nurse practitioners.
	One is a member of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky. The other is part of the School Sisters of St Francis in Milwaukee.

2 nuns found slain in Mississippi home; motive unclear

A Somali police officer says a car bomber has prematurely detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the new Turkish embassy compound in the capital, Mogadishu.
	Police opened fire on the car today evening when the bomber refused their orders to stop at a checkpoint near the beachside embassy.
	Captian Mohamed Hussein says the driver detonated the car bomb in the middle of the road. It was not immediately known if anyone was killed.
	The target of the bomber remains unclear. Several beachside restaurants near the embassy have come under attack by militants before.

Car bomb explodes near Turkish embassy in Somalia's capital

A Bengal tiger rescued from what activists have called "the worst zoo in the world" arrived in South Africa for a new home today, after living in a small cage in Gaza alongside another tiger's stuffed corpse.
	The nine-year-old male, known as Laziz, arrived by plane. His handlers said he was in good condition and calm after traveling in a wooden crate.
	The Four Paws charity launched a rescue effort at the Khan Younis zoo in Gaza when it discovered that the zoo was displaying the taxidermied corpses of animals that had died from stress, disease and starvation.
	After the zoo asked for help, Four Paws yesterday removed 15 animals including five monkeys, a porcupine and an emu. Most were destined for an animal sanctuary in Jordan.
	The tiger was taken to the Lionsrock Big Cat Sanctuary, where he took a few groggy steps into his new enclosure, used an old tree trunk as a scratching post and collapsed under a shelter to sleep off the effects of a sedative.
	"Laziz is in good condition ...

Tiger taken from 'world's worst zoo' arrives in South Africa

Global messaging service WhatsApp says it will start sharing the phone numbers of its users with Facebook, its parent company. That means WhatsApp users could soon start seeing more targeted ads and Facebook friend suggestions on Facebook based on WhatsApp information although not on the messaging service itself.
	The move is a subtle but significant shift for WhatsApp, used by more than 1 billion people around the world. When it was acquired by Facebook for an eye-popping USD 21.8 billion two years ago, executives promised privacy would be safeguarded.
	"This is a strong-arm tactic on the part of Facebook," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy in Washington, DC "They continue on a campaign on to run roughshod on our privacy rights."
	WhatsApp is giving users a limited time to opt out of sharing their information with Facebook, although they must take the extra step of unchecking a box to do so. It also says Facebook won't post phone numbers online 

WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

An easyJet flight from London's Gatwick Airport to Belfast has faced an hourlong delay after two crew members got into an epic shouting match.
	Shocked passengers tweeted about the argument that grew so heated that the two crew members had to be removed from yesterday's flight.
	Dan Lobb, a television presenter on the flight, described the scene as "unreal."
	He tweeted: "This is quite incredible. We've all worked with people we don't get on with right? But this tiff means a 1 hr flight is delayed!"
	The low-cost carrier confirmed what it called a "verbal disagreement" and apologized to passengers for the inconvenience.
	The company said today that the safety and welfare of EasyJet passengers and employees required crew members "to be able to work as a team.

London flight delayed for hour as easyJet crew members argue

Iraq's minister of defense has received a no-confidence vote from parliament just as Iraqi forces retook a key northern town near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.
	Khaled al-Obeidi is the first sitting defense minister to receive a no confidence vote from parliament since the overthrow of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003. The vote against him comes after weeks of political wrangling over corruption allegations.
	The minister received 142 votes of no confidence in parliament today, slightly more than the simple majority needed for the vote to pass, according to lawmakers Sadiq al-Rikabi and Mohammed Saadoun from the powerful State of Law block.
	"I have tried my best to fight against corruption with the means that I have," al-Obeidi wrote in a statement posted to his Facebook page shortly after the vote, "but it seems the voices of the masters of corruption are much higher and much stronger."
	Al-Obeidi was appointed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi shortly after he ...

Iraqi defense minister gets no-confidence vote

It was a time of conquest and conversions. Above all, it was a time of construction, on a scale never seen before. Over 250 years, from the 11th century onwards, the rulers of Bagan built more than 10,000 magnificent religious monuments.
	The stupas, temples and monasteries became the defining emblems of Bagan, the capital of the Pagan (pronounced PUH'-gahn) empire that ruled Myanmar from roughly 1044 to 1287.
	Yesterday, scores of the monuments - of which only about 2,200 remain - were damaged in a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake. Yet much of what fell was modern material, sanctioned by Myanmar's former army rulers who had put top priority on restoring the temples with little regard for the original architectural styles.
	King Anawratha, who unified the country formerly known as Burma, and his successors built the temples in a frenzy, believing they would gain spiritual merit. Still, piety didn't stop them from making war or killing to gain power.
	One king, Narathu, slew his ...

Quake damages scores of Myanmar's heritage Bagan temples

US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Saudi King Salman in the Red Sea city of Jeddah today ahead of wider talks focusing on the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Libya with other Gulf Arab officials.
	The flurry of meetings come as UN-mediated peace talks to bring an end to the nearly 18-month-long war in Yemen were suspended earlier this month.
	They also fall on the same day that the UN human rights chief called for an international investigation of rights abuses and violence in Yemen's civil war, which has killed more than 9,000 people, including nearly 3,800 civilians, and displaced 3 million.
	The US has provided logistical and intelligence support to a Saudi-led coalition of nine Arab countries in their bombing and ground offensive against Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen. The Houthis, who are allied with Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran, seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
	A senior State Department official traveling with Kerry said he was expected to raise ...

Kerry in Saudi Arabia for talks on Yemen, Syria conflicts

China is facing a one-year ban from weightlifting over repeated doping cases in a move which threatens to stop some of the world's top athletes from competing internationally.
     The International Weightlifting Federation confirmed today that three failed retests of drug test samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics will lead to China's automatic ban -- if the cases are proven and the athletes in question disqualified by the International Olympic Committee.
     China is the world's dominant country in weightlifting, having topped the medal table at every Olympics since 2000.
     It won seven medals in Rio de Janeiro this month, five of them gold.
     The IWF said that Ukraine and Azerbaijan have joined Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which were already facing one-year bans under earlier announcements.

AP

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